Alfred stillman



' 2 Sh eetsShe et I.

STILLMAN. I Evaporating Pan.

No. 3.223. m

' Patented Aug. 17,

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

A. STILLMAN.

Evaporating Pan.

Patnted Aug. I]. 1843.

UNrTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALFRED STILLMAN, or new YenK, n.

IMPROVEMENT m EVA'PORATING ISAC'CHARIINE JUICES- Specification forming part of Letters Patent No, 3,223, dated August 17, 1843.

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known-that I, ALFRED STILLMAN, of the city and State of New York, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Evaporating saccharine Juices; and I do hereby de clare that the followingis a full and exact deseription' of the same as applied to'ev-aporating the juice of the sugar-cane, although the sameshall apply equally to evaporating any other of the saccharine juices. i i

The nature of my invention consists in placing between the usual train of -coppers or kettles and the chimney, steam boilers which shall employ the surplus or waste heat fromthe train in generating steam .for rinding I cane, pumping, or any other urpose or which it may berequired'. This 0t erh have done,

but not with good resu1ts, for the reason that the train. of copper, being undiminishedin length, absorbed so much of the heat .of the fire as to render it of but little use to thesteam,

boilers. I obviate .this difficulty by dizninisltling to any extent thenumber of kettles in the train, and bring the steam-boilers into closer contact with the fire. To supply the deficiency of evaporating-power occasioned by di- Y minishing the train of kettles, I'substitute in their place any number of steam evaporators or olarifiers into which is introduced the ex haust or waste steam from the steam-engine. This waste steam, to be made effective, must be introduced into the clarifiers or evaporato'rs under a pressure greater than that of the at nos'phere, and the effect will be in proportion.

to the pressure. The objects which I secure are a saving of fuel and improvement in the quality of the product, and the improvement in the latter respect will be proportionate to that amount of the process for clarifying and evaporating whichis transferred from the ordinary kettles in contact with the fire to those making use of ihewaste steam. 7

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invcntiom'I proceed to describe 1 its construction and operation, reference be ing had to the. annexed drawings,making part of this specification.

Illigu'res 1 and 2 are a plan and elcvation'of a sugar-works in which are shown ihe applilonlyageneral arrangement.

I The letters oi. reference apply to the shine parts in the two figures.

- ration of my improvenn'n t, and representing- AA are the steam-boilers, so placed as to receive under them the waste from the train;

3 is the steam-engine. Q is .the cane-111111.?

D is the reservoir for: cane juice from the :mill. E is the pump for-lifting the liquor fronrthe reservoir tothe elarifiers through the train.- N is the flue through which the flame passes from the train under thesteamboilers to the chimney-O. Pis also aim to the chimney, so that the flame from the train may beturned off from the steam-boilers at will. It is. the exhaust-steam pipe from the engine. This I pipe; communicates with the pipes in the, clarifiers or evaporatorsri S is the escape-valve, 'by'fwhich ,a pressure is .maintained in the exhaust pipe.

Figs. 3 and 4 are elevations in sectionof the.

clarifiers, sh owing their construction, which is as follows: 1' construct a rectanguular -aboi': of

sheet-iron, (boiler-plate) the, bottomlofiwhi'eh' I make double, so as to form the steam-chamber t. Around the top I eonstructa ehanneh wee-m, which forms the. skimmingspout. Thesk-immin'gs which it receives are carried off by the pipe. 1"

In addition to the heating-surface obtained by the double bottom, I place above it one or more tiers of copper pipes. The method'of introducing them is as follows: On two opposite sidcs of the clarifiers I rivet a cast-iron box, which form the sidechambenb I), under;- tends the whole'length of the clarifier. This chamber is closed by the movable plate 12, which is fasten ed by bolts, as shown at 0'. These two opposite chambers are connected by the crosspipes c.- The pipes are received into the chambers through the packing-joints s s, so as to prevent any commnnicationbetween thesteani in the chamber and the'liquor within the clarificr. To the top of one of the side chambers I attach a cylindrical valve-chamber, '1, which receives the steam from the exhaust-pipe on either side. From the lower side of this valveehamber is a StGHJlhPflSSilgfi, t,.communicati11;, with the chamber 0. This steam-passage is -.the shaft 6, which shaft extends through the videdby the apertures f f. When the engine is I, the exhaust-pipe R is admitted through the ticular shape or manner, as I h good success (in place of the clarifying. 4 Their construction is as follows:

with a hinge on the upper side for atta ment are attached by flanges and bolts to the bottom of the seats. their own weight, and th levers on .the shaft K, wh

be secured is to discharge the liquor and sedh:

opened or closed by means of a sliding valve, (2, which is moved by the arm a, attached to clarifier to the opposite side. This particular method of admitting into and shutting off the steam from the clarifiers is not essential, as any of the methods in commonuse for similar purposes will answer. A steam communication from the side chamber, 1), to the space a (formed by the double bottom of the clarifier) is pro in operatiomthe wastesteam passing through aperture t into the side chamber, 1), and from thence into thepipes c c, and also through the apertures f f into the bottom chamber a; The liquorin the'clarifier is then exposed to the heating-surfacesof the pipes c c, and also of the false or donble bottonn Steam-pipes passing through the liquor have been before employed, but not in combination with the double bottom. The advantage of this combination is this: By using thepipes alone, that portion of the liquor beneath them would be in a great measure unaffected, while the :double bottom alone would not give the necessary heating-surface, so that the CO1 bination is necessary to a perfect operation. The pipes are not necessarily introduced in this parave usedgyvith separate i'pipes here described) an ordinary coil of pipe or'i worm placed near the bottom of the clarifier, and connected through the side (by flanges) to the exhaust-pipe, the steam being admitted and shutoff by a cock. 1

For'convenien'ce of access an fer the construction before-described.

h and 2' are two valves one for discharging theclarified or concentrated liquor, and the other for discharging the sediment formed in d repair, I pre- 3 he valve is the ordinary puppet-valve} v ching the rods. v The seat is fitted between the two. bottoms of the clarifier and riveted to'both. The pipes for carrying off the liquor and sedi- The valves will close by v e weight of the liquor above ,them will keep them tight. The valves are raised by rods connecting them to ich shaft is worked by a handle on the outside of the. clarifier. The valves are so placed that the levers stand in opposite directions upon the same shaft, so that both valves can never be opened at the same time. A The kind of valves here employed, or the method of working them, are not essential features of my invention. The only object to ment from the lowest practicable;

S'i'sthe escape-valve, made like an ordinary safety-valve, (such as used on all steamboilers,) and attached to the exhaust-pipe of points by any means Letters Patent, is-

the engine. Its particular construction, however, .is not essential, its purpose being to obtain all the useful effect of the waste steam by confining it in the exhaust-pipe-and clarifiers at any required pressure. Suppose, for instance,that the. engine is in operation, and

the exhaust-pipe terminating in the clarifiers,

but in some part of the exhaust-pipe there is an opening into-the air of a size equal to that The steam of coursewould es-' of the pipe. cape through the opening against thepressure of the atmosphere,- only its effect in the clarifiers would then be very slight; butif we close that opening by means of a loaded valve (like an'ordinary safety-valve,) we obtain some effect from the steam, and by increasing the weight on the valve we may so confine the".

waste steam as to effect the entire absorption of its heat in the clarifiers or evaporators, and

Without engine. L I

The'opei'ation'of a sugar-works having my improvements is as follows: The flues N and I? being closed by dampers,..(at"'the beginning ofv a days work,) a fire ismade under the steam-boilers at U, Fig. 1, in the usual manner.

materially affecting the power of the cane-liquor. The pump E is then, put in operation, and the liquor carried to the clarifiers G G through the pipe F. The steam is then =admitted from the exhaust-pipe into the clarifiers, and the liquor, having gone through the usual process of clarifying, is discharged by means of the valves I h into the evaporator H, and through that into the train of coppers I K L, wher e the evaporation is to be completed.

These coppers or kettlesbeing filled with the clarified liquor, the furnace at U,'Fig. 1, is

closed, and the fire started under the train of coppers in the furnace M, by which fire .(beside effecting theconcentration of the liquor in the kettles) the steam is generated in the boilers, and the operation continued.

I willhere add that the steam-clarifiers herein described may be used indiscriminately in clarifying or evaporating, as the case may re quire. If the train of coppers be very much diminished, more of the evaporation, must be carried on in the stea'm-ev I do not claim the reapplication of course, aporators. of the fire from thetrainof kettles .or coppers to the" purpose of generating steam; nor the application of eXha u rating; nor any particular construction of a valve by which to maintain a pressure in he exhaust-pipe and clarifiers; nor anypart-usular arrangement of the steamwboilers and flues, or of the steam-engine and cane-mill; but

,What I do claim, and desireto secure by 1. The substituting any number of steam evaporators or clarifiers constructed and operating as herein set forth for any number of the ordinary train of cop efi'ect that the steam-boilers may be brought As soon as asuificiency of steam isgenerated, the engine and cane-mill are put in operation, and the reservoir D filledwith the.

st-steam to clarifying or evapopers or. kettles, to the 'nearer to the strength of the fire from the a loaded valve, so as to maintain within it a train. pressure greater than that of the atmosphere 2. The arrangement of the pipes passing all of which is above substantially described. through the liquid, in combination with the New York, July 31, 1843.

double bottoms, as Set forth. ALFRED STILLMAN.

3. The method herein set forth of applying itnesses: the exhaust-steam from the enginethat is to F. M. STILLMAN,

say, by closing the exhaust-pipe by means of CHAS. (I). GREENOUGII. 

